The real-life sport is based on the fictional, aerial games in the "Harry Potter" books and movies.

Registration for Montgomery's first-ever Quidditch Tournament and Festival begins Saturday at http://quidmontgomery.com The inaugural tournament is scheduled for Feb. 23 at Blount Cultural Park, hosted by the City of Montgomery along with the Alabama Shakesepeare Festival and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

Quidditch is the real-life version of the fictional sport from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels (and the movies that followed) -- a fast-paced cross between soccer and basketball. While it's fun for all ages, the Montgomery Quidditch Tournament and Festival's sponsors are focusing primarily on high school, college, and young professional teams to compete for the Montgomery Quidditch Cup Championship.

The sport has been adapted under the name of Muggle Quidditch (or simply "Quidditch") to the real world and its players are referred to as muggles. Since at least 2003, Harry Potter fans have played ball games resembling the Harry Potter sport.

In the U.S., teams from more than 200 colleges are affiliated with the International Quidditch Association and play tournaments.

In the Rowling novels, Quidditch is described as a rough but very popular semi-contact sport played by between two teams of seven players riding flying broomsticks, using four balls and six elevated ring-shaped goals three on each side of the Quidditch field. In the Harry Potter universe, Quidditch holds a fervent following similar to the position that soccer holds as a globally popular sport.

You can find information about the tournament, festival, registration and team sponsorship opportunities at http://quidmontgomery.com